Giants of the Guianas

The region - which includes Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana - is one of the most pristine and unspoilt in the world. Small wonder that a few giants have survived, including:-

1. The arapaima – the world's biggest freshwater fish – a lugubrious 'bearded' monster that grows up to seven feet long. The arapaima traces its ancestry back over 100 million years
2. Here too are the world’s biggest ants, called Dinoponera Grandis.
3. The giant anteater. Once known as the 'ant bear', it is armed with dagger-like claws. It's said that if a dog attacks it, the anteater will grab the predator, insert its claws, and open it up like a ripe fruit.
4. My favourite of all is this creature; the giant otter (see photo). On the sandbanks of the Rupununi, they may look like a series of arches, slightly comical and ungainly - but in the water, they're like torpedos. Although strictly speaking, they're super-sized weasels, the giant otters were originally referred to as ‘water dogs’, and it isn’t hard to see why. They have huge knobbly paws and thick whiskers, and a bark like a foxhound. It's said they're always hungry and always hunting. Their high metabolism makes them one of the most voracious predators of all ...

(for more on the Guianas, read 'Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge')